LibDems split as Prime Minister brings cabinet to Liverpool

Original post edited as follows -

LibDems in Liverpool are split about the cabinet coming to Liverpool. Paula Keaveney, Councillor for Ethical Governance, is complaining about the cost to the tax payer of any policing and calling it a publicity stunt.

I am not sure what the problem with publicity is, we want everyone to know that Liverpool has been chosen as one of the very first places the cabinet want to hear from. That our voices matter. Surely we dont want to hide that under a bushel. And the ministerial visits being undertaken across Liverpool and the North-West today, on the back of the cabinet meeting, are all of huge benefit to us. We are showcasing our best projects and drawing attention to those things where we badly need help.

Whereas I see that the Deputy Leader of the Libdems in Liverpool, Cllr Clucas has said "It’s always good when politicians get out of the Westminster village to see what life outside is really like.”

I am with Flo on this, it is good that politicians get out of their ivory towers and come and meet real people who can tell them about how life is currently being experienced in Picton, Croxteth, Everton or Anfield, or any of the other places Cabinet ministers have visited today. And those 200 or so who turned up at the Q&A round table forum with ministers at the Convention Centre today or those members of the business community who met the Prime Minister and 5 Secretaries of State last night in the Newz Bar.

I wonder if the LibDems would reject a visit from Barak Obama, or the Pope, for instance, on the grounds that we dont want to pay the policing, or would some of them think it was an honour that Liverpool was chosen? I know which way I look at it.

And you can be absolutely sure they all would be moaning like hell if the cabinet had gone to Manchester - saying Liverpool had been overlooked.

I tell you what it is, sour grapes!

Everyone in Britain (apart from David Cameron - who ironically brought the shadow cabinet to Liverpool in 2006 but appears to have forgotten that - and evidently at least some Liverpool LibDems) would agree that politicians need to listen and learn and act upon the things that matter to people and what better way than that they take the cabinet out to those people.